Crusty

With all the rain we have had lately it has packed the dirt in our garden so that it is just a hard crust on top. Yesterday I was checking if everything was growing. I was amazed as I looked at some of the plants and how they have pushed their way through the hard crust. Seeds like carrots that are so tiny, have made it through and are growing nicely. It must have been much harder for them to push through this hard crust rather than nice soft soil, but I have to think the plants are stronger for it.

This reminds me of my life as a Christian. God sometimes puts ‘hard’ things in my path to make me grow strong. I have two choices. I can sit there under the surface and become bitter and angry or complain to God, or I can allow these things to make me grow and make me stronger in Him. He doesn’t put these things in my path because He loves to see me hurting, but instead because He loves to see me grow, He wants my roots in Him deep and strong so that when the winds and rains of life come, I will be strong in Him and be able to handle less than ideal conditions. It is so easy to bemoan and groan in my afflictions, but God says in the Bible to rejoice in these things.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; But rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” 1 Peter 4:12-14a

How many times do I think of my ‘fiery trial’ as an inconvenience and ‘unfair’ and yet God uses these things to bring glory to Him as we grow and mature and encourage others. So I want to encourage you today as Corrie ten Boom said, “There is no pit deeper that God’s love is not deeper still.” So whatever pit you are in today remember, God’s love for you is deeper and allow Him to ‘grow’ you as a strong, deeply rooted plant that will produce much fruit for Him and bring glory to His name!